Smash and thick burgers, with mushroom, mayonnaise and baking soda hacks

Smash burger: put a three ounce ball of beef on a ripping hot skillet, let it caramelize on the bottom, then flip and smash it with a hot smasher; once caramelized on the other side, season with a little salt, scoop it off and bun it.

Thick burger: sear a six ounce patty on both sides until medium well.

Ground beef cooked past 125 to 130F gets progressively drier, which is what these hacks are meant to safeguard against.

Variation, mushrooms: quarter 12 ounces of baby Bella mushrooms and process them in a food processor until they turn brownish red.

Par cook them in the microwave three minutes, stirring halfway through.

Press them through a fine mesh sieve to get the excess moisture out, scrape them into a bowl and cool completely, then blend them into one pound of 85 15 ground beef and form the test patties.

Wrap the smasher in aluminum foil shiny side out and keep it hot so the burger does not stick to it; once it picks up fat it becomes sticky again.

Variation, mayonnaise: work about one tablespoon of mayonnaise into half a pound of ground beef and form the patties.

Press a shallow concave dimple into the centre of the thick patty so it does not dome as the centre rises.

Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, flip, and cook to medium well.

Variation, baking soda: dissolve about an eighth of a teaspoon of baking soda in a tablespoon of water per half pound of meat - a quarter teaspoon per pound - and mix it through so it is evenly distributed and not left as powder.

Baking soda lowers the temperature at which the Maillard reaction happens, giving deeper browning faster; it also tenderizes and shrinks the patty, so make the patties well bigger than the bun.